Driving Naari Programme launched in Chandigarh
Chandigarh, Hinting at levying entry fee at tourist places and incorporating fund-raising activities for self-sustainability of tourism projects, Minister for Tourism Navjot Singh Sidhu today said the Virasat-e-Khalsa project of the previous SAD-BJP government was proving a “white elephant”.
“Despite best intentions, the mega project, which has a maintenance cost of around Rs12 crore annually, cannot survive,” he said
Announcing the inauguration of the Partition Museum in Amritsar on August 17 by Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh at a press conference here, Sidhu said: “Our cultural policy will underline its commercial feasibility. Tourism projects have the potential to provide employment opportunities to the youth who constitute 56 per cent of the state population. Revenue generation is equally important for all tourism projects.”
The Partition Museum, which will be thrown open to the public on Partition Remembrance Day, will be dedicated to “ordinary and extraordinary people, particularly from Punjab and Bengal, who lost everything during the Partition, but went on to build a new India with their indomitable spirit and resilience”.
The museum being set up by the Arts and Cultural Heritage Trust has been assured support by the state.
Kishwar Desai, chairperson of the Trust, said: “We have asked people to contribute items from their personal treasure. A few interesting collections included a wrist watch of the father-in-law of Sudarshana Kumari, who died in the violence, and the original copy of the memorandum submitted by the Punjab Boundary Commission. We are expecting filmmakers Mahesh Bhatt and Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra at the inaugural ceremony.”
